1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to certain new and useful improvements in overhead door locking mechanisms and, more particularly, to an overhead door locking mechanism operating in conjunction with a garage door opener control circuit for sensing the condition of the lock and controlling actuation of the garage door opener in response to whether or not the lock is in an opened or closed condition.
2. Brief Description of Related Art
Automatic overhead garage door mechanisms are well known and used in a variety of installations as, for example, residential garage doors, warehouse doors, and the like. There are also a large number of automatic door operators for opening and closing these doors. In some cases, the doors are comprised of hingedly connected individual panels which are capable of pivoting relative to other vertically arranged panels when the door is opened. Each of the panels successively shift through an arcuate path during opening movement and also in closing movement or in a reverse movement. In other cases, the door is a single panel door and capable of being moved through an arcuate path to an opened position where it may be generally disposed in a horizontal position and parallel to the floor of the installation.
In many cases, and particularly with the segmented overhead doors, such as residential garage doors, the door is movable in a fixed trackway or so-called xe2x80x9ctrackxe2x80x9d. Usually, a pair of tracks are located on the opposite sides of the access opening over which the door extends and the door is movable in these tracks. Moreover, the door itself is provided with rollers mounted thereon and extending laterally from the sides of the door for rollable movement in the tracks and which thereby allows for the movement of the door relative to the tracks.
In many cases, the overhead door is operated by a door operator, as aforesaid, and only the door operator itself provides any locking activity. However, in many cases, the locking effects offered by an operator are limited. Where security is necessary for access to an installation, these operators usually do not have a sufficient locking capacity or locking capability. Consequently, it is sometimes necessary to provide an additional locking mechanism which operates in conjunction with, but which may be independent of, the door operator itself.
There have been garage door operators which provide for a locking mechanism as, for example, in the U.S. Pat. No. 6,089,626 to Shoemaker, the present applicant herein. There are also a large number of independently operated locking mechanisms such as, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,771,219 to McGee. The McGee patent uses a solenoid operated locking mechanism which operates locking pins. Thus, the door lock does not operate in conjunction with the lock associated therewith. Another such locking mechanism not incorporated in a door operator is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,924 to Paster. However, it may be desirable in some cases to employ a door operator which has those desired features and to utilize a lock mechanism therefor along with a lock control circuit operative with the opener for controlling that lock mechanism.
In my U.S. Pat. No. 6,027,148 and in my aforesaid U.S. Pat. No. 6,089,626, there is provided a locking mechanism which does provide a security locking action and can be used with an overhead door, and operated with a control module therefor. The present invention, however, describes a mechanism, which is an improvement over that taught in my aforesaid U.S. patents.
It is, therefore, one of the objects of the present to provide a combination lock mechanism and control module therefor which can be used in an auxiliary capacity to a garage door opener or so-called xe2x80x9cdoor operatorxe2x80x9d or which can form part of a door operator for providing a security locking condition to an overhead door.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a lock control module which is connected to a lock mechanism and provides a signal to the garage door opener depending upon whether or not the lock mechanism is in a locked condition or an unlocked condition.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a lock mechanism which is designed with an arm capable of extending into a trackway normally designed to receive one or more rollers on an overhead sectional door. In this latter condition, the arm will block movement of the door rollers and thereby preclude movement of the door to an opened position. The lock mechanism also permits means for withdrawal of the arm from its blocking position in the track thereby allowing free movement of the door rollers and, hence, the door mounted in said trackway to the opened position.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a method of controlling the movement of a garage door through a control module which operates in conjunction with a lock mechanism and thereby allows operation of a door opener only if the lock is in an unlocked condition to thereby open an overhead door. In other words, the door can open or close only if the lock mechanism is unlocked.
It is another salient object of the present invention to provide a method for obtaining a security locking action for an overhead sectional door in conjunction with an opener for the door and where the condition of the lock is sensed and movement of the door is controlled in response thereto.
With the above and other objects in view, my invention resides in the novel features of form, construction, arrangement and combination of parts and components presently described and pointed out in the claims.
The present invention provides a door lock system primarily for use with overhead doors, such as overhead sectional garage doors, in which there is provided a lock mechanism, as well as a relatively simple lock control circuit, frequently referred to as a xe2x80x9clock control modulexe2x80x9d. This module is relatively simple and is capable of controlling the security functions of the system of the present invention.
The lock mechanism as well as the lock control circuit are used in conjunction with a conventional garage door opener and, sometimes referred to as an xe2x80x9coperatorxe2x80x9d. In this case, the garage door opener would be partially controlled through the action of the lock control module which, in turn, senses the condition of the locking mechanism, all in a manner as hereinafter described in more detail.
The locking mechanism of the invention comprises a housing which is installed independently of the garage door opener. Mounted within the housing is a shiftable arm which is adapted to extend into a track which receives rollers on the garage door. When the lock mechanism is in the locked condition it will form a barrier and thereby preclude the garage door rollers from moving. The arm is also shiftable back out of the pathway of the track in the opened condition thereby allowing movement of the rollers and hence the overhead door.
The locking mechanism of the invention further includes a solenoid which causes movement of the arm to the unlocked condition and which is also spring biased back to the locked condition. In addition, a switch is mounted on the lock mechanism and is designed to transmit a locked condition signal or an unlocked condition signal to the control module in its response to the locked or unlocked condition of the locking mechanism.
A manual override also forms part of the lock mechanism of the invention in that a user can automatically shift the arm to the locked position where it extends into the track to block the path of the rollers. The user can also manually shift the arm to the opened position to remove any obstruction in the track and thereby allow movement of the overhead door.
The locking mechanism of the invention is effective, in that it literally operates without a locking pin or lock engaging elements, such as cams, pawls, and the like. Rather, the locking mechanism causes movement of the locking bar or arm, which is shiftable into and out of the track, defining a pathway for rollers on the door itself.
The arm forming part of the locking mechanism is automatically biased to back out of the track by the action of the rollers when the overhead door is being moved from an open position to a closed position. The arm has an inclined surface which is engaged by the rollers while the door is moving to the closed position and thereby automatically biases the arm out of the pathway of the track, thereby allowing the door to move to the fully closed or lowered position.
The locking mechanism operates with the aforesaid module, in that the lock control module will provide for a ground signal to be sent to the garage door opener and which will cause the opener to open the overhead door in response to an activation signal. When the activation input signal has been received, the control module energizes an internal relay providing a 24 volt dc signal for a preset duration which energizes a solenoid in the lock to open the lock. A second and separate electrical signal is also sent from the module to the lock and back to the module to verify that the lock is opened.
After the solenoid has been energized and the lock opens, this second signal passes through the electrical switch in the lock. After passing through the closed switch the second signal returns to the control module and is used to activate the garage door opener.
Activation signals from the control module will activate the opener, when the opener connected to the door effectively receives a signal through the module that the lock mechanism is unlocked. As a simple example, when the control module is activated, the control module of the invention will enable the lock to be opened and thereby allow for movement of the overhead door to the opened position.
When there is a signal to authorizedly open the lock, the module transmits the signal to the lock mechanism, and this will cause the blocking arm to move into a position against the action of a spring, where it will not interfere with movement of the door rollers. Thus, and in this latter condition, the door will be allowed to freely move.
This invention possesses many other advantages and has other purposes which may be made more clearly apparent from a consideration of the forms in which it may be embodied. These forms are shown in the drawings forming a part of and accompanying the present specification. They will now be described in detail for purposes of illustrating the general principles of the invention. However, it is to be understood that the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings are not to be taken in a limiting sense.